Month: June 2017

CI Games, creators of Lords of the Fallen and the Sniper: Ghost Warrior series of games, has announced the next DLC – the McMillan TAC-338A. Based on a real sniper rifle, the McMillan Tac-338A is now available for Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 players as part of the Season Pass DLC for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One platforms. Feel the power of this legendary rifle used by Chris Kyle and test your sharpshooting skills on the field.

We’ve continued to listen to feedback that has been given to us over the course of development for Sniper: Ghost Warrior. Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 is without a doubt the biggest project created by CI Games so far. We couldn’t be more proud of the scale we’ve managed to achieve with this project. As a thank you for all the players, we’ve prepared this unique infographics that contains some really amazing facts about the game and its contents. The size of the game will even go bigger with the upcoming DLC’s planned as our Season Pass, including “The Sabotage” – our next single-player campaign expands the Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 story.

Watch the trailer here.

To learn more about Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3, visit the games official website.

Matt “Xoom” Callahan from Cornered Rat Software has announced that World War II Online will reach Early Access status on Steam this summer! Here’s a bit from the latest development update…

Steam users will be having their very own game client, we’ve chosen to do this to make things much easier on their end and work with the Steam flow much easier. So new users coming from Steam will not be required to launch the Playgate as our (organic) current users do. Actually signing up for an account and managing that account will also be a bit different, all of that is being worked on as we speak and is making really solid progress.

Currently we’re in the “Coming Soon” to Steam category and we’re already gaining some awareness in preparation for our actual Early Access launch day. This is great because it’s already building up a bit of a fan base, in fact we have (as of this writing) 1,446 members part of our Steam group, welcome aboard everyone!

Head on over to the World War II Online Steam page for more information on the games upcoming early access period, updates, trailers and more!

Don’t forget to visit the official World War II Online website where you can sign up and download the game! Enlist now! Become part of the new generation of World War II Online players!

Have a need to know more about what the games developers are working on in World War II Online? Then grab a cold one and head on over to the Playnet – Cornered Rat Software YouTube Channel and watch the latest “Rat Chat“!

About WWII Online:

World War II Online is a Massively Multiplayer FPS, simulation game set in the Western Front of WWII. The game offers a strategic and persistent winnable Campaign that is completely player-driven, both in the strategic planning and players fighting to control territory.

Its scale is a massive 300,000 SQ KM that is an interconnected and zone-less game world offering total freedom for players. This scale allows for truly immersive combined arms pvp combat. Communication between the Army, Air Force, and Naval units that are engaged will help determine the outcome! There are no limitations to how many players can interact in a battle space.

All weapons, vehicles, munitions and ordinance perform according to realistic values. We have achieved this through direct access to historical archives, a network of military experts and our advanced proprietary game engine that goes in depth like never before. Armor on tanks and aircraft, as well as their internal components, are modeled down to the millimeter.

Paradox Thanks their Community with New Voiceovers, Portraits, and More

Paradox Interactive and Paradox Development Studio today celebrated the one-year anniversary of Hearts of Iron IV, the World War II Grand Strategy Game released to critical acclaim on June 6, 2016. Hearts of Iron IV, the game that challenges players to navigate the nation of their choice through history’s greatest conflict, continues to engage players one year later across Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs. To thank the community for their ongoing support for the game, Paradox today released the Hearts of Iron IV Anniversary Pack as free DLC, available now for all players.

Since the game’s release one year ago, Hearts of Iron IV has built a dedicated and growing community of players. Today, Hearts of Iron IV continues to be played by an average of 250,000 monthly active users (MAU). Over half of those players enjoy using one or more of the community’s creative game mods, including “Millenium Dawn,” which brings the war into the modern era, “The Great War,” which pulls it back to World War I, or “Kaiserreich,” an alternate historical setting that presumes Germany had won the first world war. More mods and newer players continue to flock to Hearts of Iron IV, setting the stage for more new war stories for years to come.

The Anniversary Pack includes new in-game content to provide players with a richer and more detailed Hearts of Iron IV experience, featuring new voiceovers for Polish troops – an inclusion frequently requested by the player community. Players can download the new content for free today:

• New voiceovers for troops while playing as Poland
• 20 new portrait selections for generals and leaders across nations in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America
• 20 new custom division icons

To download the free Anniversary Pack, visit http://store.steampowered.com/app/642010/Hearts_of_Iron_IV_Anniversary_Pack/.

A new addition to Hearts of Iron IV will also arrive next week with the release of Death or Dishonor, a Country Pack releasing on June 14, 2017. Death or Dishonor will add new focus trees and in-game events for the nations of Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. For more information on the forthcoming DLC, visit https://www.paradoxplaza.com/hearts-of-iron-iv-death-or-dishonor.

For more information about Hearts of Iron IV, visit the games official website.

On this day 73 years ago, the Allies were about to start Operation Overlord, the biggest naval invasion of history. Its aim was to land on the European mainland. It was D-Day.

We chose to remember this day by putting several of our World War II games on discount! All games in the following list are discounted by 30% off until the end of the week on Sunday 11th June!

All you have to do is enter “D-Day30” in the coupon field when checking out, and all games in the list will be discounted by 30% off!

This offer is only valid on our store on www.slitherine.com and www.matrixgames.com, not on Steam! Remember that if you buy a game which is also available on Steam from our store, you will be given a Steam key so you can redeem the game on Steam as well.

One of the best wargames recently released has reached a new milestone!

Strategic Command is now available on Steam, and finally you’ll be able to unleash the power of the Axis or the Allies on this platform!

You will be the supreme mastermind behind the entire conduct of operations, deciding the priorities, the strategies, and coordinating your global efforts to win the war!

Each nation in your coalition will have their own strengths and weaknesses, levels of technology, troops, equipment, and industrial capacity, and it will be up to you to make the best use of all of them!

Strategic Command WWII: War in Europe is a deeply immersive turn based strategy game covering the greatest conflict in modern history.

Don’t miss this change and grab the game now! What are you waiting for?

Get more information about Strategic Command WWII: War in Europe from its official Product Page!

On D-Day (June 6), 2001, a revolutionary game was released. It was “Blitzkrieg,” later to be known as Battleground Europe: World War II Online (WWIIOL), the world’s first MMOFPS. Unfortunately, the publisher (Strategy First) forced the game out the door without sufficient time to test and debug the game. In addition, there were massive server problems three days before release. With that type of start, what game would survive? Well, this one did, but barely. For years, the game had improvements and fixes done in fits and starts, as finances would allow. Bugs were patched as best as they could be, given the circumstances. Basically, the game ended up on life support. So, what ended up happening, you might ask. Go ahead, ask!

The game (soon to be known just as “World War II Online“) is alive and well! Matt “Xoom” Callahan (one of the players) and a couple others managed to salvage the game when almost all the Rats (the developers, aka Cornered Rat Studios) had quit. They had the game on life support for a few years, but still operational. Those days are GONE! The community came together, contributed via a couple fundraising campaigns, and the game is moving forward again. Lots of old, badly patched “spaghetti code” has been eliminated, new audits are being done on major game functions (damage models, physics (flight, ship, and ground vehicle movement), ballistics, explosives, and more.

The basic (low tier equipment) game is free to play. There is also a “Starter” (up to mid-tier equipment) subscription for $7.99(US)/month and a Standard (full) subscription for $14.99(US)/month if done on easy pay. If you sign up for a free to play account, you get two weeks of free Premium access, so you can dive in and try everything first. Get some XP and use some higher tier toys. Let me tell you, however, this game is SO worth the subscription fee. For about the price of a movie ticket, popcorn, and a soft drink you can have a full month of gaming.

World War II Online is the ONLY campaign-based combined arms WWII FPS sim in the world. A campaign starts with both sides locked in battle over western Europe. Think if the Allies had won the Battle of France and pushed the Germans back a bit so each side had 1/2 of western Europe. From there, the campaign goes, REAL TIME, until one side wins, whether that takes weeks or even months. Then, after one side is victorious, there is a short (2-5 day) intermission. Then, war breaks out again! You can fly fighters, fighter/bombers, light/medium bombers, or transport planes (to carry paratroopers). You can drive armored cars or tanks. You can pilot river patrol boats, destroyers, or cargo ships. You can be a paratrooper. OR, you can just be PBI (poor, bloody infantry).

Yes, the graphics are still primitive (but being improved). The gameplay is NOT primitive, however. The physics and damage modeling are as accurate as they can make them. This is NOT an arcade shooter. One bullet CAN (and does) kill your character, most of the time. Lower res graphics also allow you to play the game without a top end gaming computer. The campaign map is STILL the Guinness World Record holder for the largest computer game map in the world. It is ONE, non-instanced (everyone on the same map at the same time) 1/2 scale map of Europe. There can be hundreds, even thousands of players (soon, we hope), all on the same game map You can literally hop in a plane in England and fly to Germany, flying over battles and dodging flak, as live players fight for the ground beneath you. The only AI (computer controlled units) are some anti aircraft batteries and guard towers/emplacements in army bases and airfields and around towns. Other than that, EVERY enemy (and friend) ingame is a real player, just like you. This is also not a solo-player killfest. If you run in on your own, without knowing what you’re doing, you will just pad other players’ kill stats.

These videos will give you an idea (well, sort of):

• Stayin Alive – World War II Online
• How Not to be Seen – World War II Online

New items are being modeled for the game (at LAST)! New weapons have been added. Now, the Rats are introducing new equipment based on existing units already ingame, SPAA (self-propelled (vehicle mounted) anti aircraft) and tankbuster aircraft. Recently, they added PPOs (player placed objects) such as individual fortifications (think foxholes only above ground), sandbags, and the like. This is all leading up to entirely new game content, vehicles and equipment not seen ingame before. The game is due for a summer 2017 release on the Steam game service, so most of the attention is going toward the netcode, servers, and such. After that, the sky is the limit. The game is even going to be ported over to the Unreal 4 engine at some point. There are quite a few day one players still playing every day. This is for a game which launched on D-Day (June 6th), 2001, SIXTEEN YEARS ago. That alone should tell you something. The playerbase is amazing, btw. It’s truly like a family…a huge, dysfunctional family. Just hop onto the forums and you’ll see. Seriously though, the players are all in this together and support one another with a lot of genuine affection. It’s nothing to see a huge outpouring of well wishes if a long-time player gets a serious illness or injury, or to have players meeting up for mini-conventions or lan parties at the drop of a hat. When you sign up for WWIIOL, you become part of that family.

WWIIOL Website:
http://www.wwiionline.com/

WWIIOL Forums:
http://forums.wwiionline.com/forums/

WWIIOL YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOQ90QTMviaKRqIMlUthW2A

WWIIOL Developer Roadmap (upcoming projects and features):
https://www.wwiionline.com/community-news#dev-roadmap

Come join the party…err…fighting! Don’t you know, there’s a war on?

Real-time strategy classic Company of Heroes continues to mark 10 years in the trenches with a celebration of its dedicated fan base. The game’s community has played an integral part in its enduring appeal through the submission of incredible user-generated content and innovative mods.

Today, Relic Entertainment and SEGA Europe Ltd. are delighted to recognize the ongoing dedication of these players with a raft of activity across the franchise:

• Company of Heroes has been updated with Steam Workshop capabilities and in-game Workshop hub allowing users to play, share and manage their subscriptions to custom scenarios. This update includes Steam Trading Cards to entice completionists everywhere!
• The Eastern Front mod – bringing the two original factions from Company of Heroes 2 (the Soviet Army and the German Ostheer) into the original Company of Heroes – is now available on Steam. This rounds out a selection of total conversions already available including the Far East War, the Great War and Europe at War.
• Until 10AM PDT, June 5th, all Company of Heroes and Company of Heroes 2 games and expansions will be 75% off and all Company of Heroes 2 paid-DLC and in-game store items will be 66% off.

“Company of Heroes players are still blowing us away with their creativity and support,” said Justin Dowdeswell, General Manager at Relic. “We count ourselves very lucky to see the energy we put into building this game given right back to us by the players.”

For more information about Company of Heroes, visit the games official website.

In celebration of the successful Jets DLC take-off, Bohemia Interactive today published a brand new episode in the official Arma 3 Community Guide series (available on YouTube). The new video examines all of the aspects of jet employment in Arma 3, such as the various types of jets, munitions, sensors, threats, and tactics. In addition, the studio posted a new devblog, in which Creative Director Jay Crowe explains the role of jets in the Arma 3 sandbox, describes how the Jets DLC marked the first collaboration with a third-party development team, and offers a brief update on Arma 3′s 2017-2018 development roadmap.

Released two weeks ago, Arma 3 Jets is the first of several new DLC which Bohemia Interactive has planned for Arma 3′s fourth year of post-release support. Upcoming DLC packages include the Arma 3 Malden (free), “Orange” (working title), Tac-Ops, and Tanks. Compared to what was previously announced, the most notable change in the roadmap is that the “Orange” DLC has now been moved to the third quarter of this year. The free Malden DLC is still scheduled for release on the 16th anniversary of the Arma series; June 22nd – alongside Bohemia Interactive’s new (and free) tactical multiplayer shooter, Argo.

For more information on the Arma 3 Jets DLC, be sure to read the latest devblog, and visit the Arma 3 Jets DLC official website.

Nival releases Blitzkrieg 3, an online World War II real-time strategy made for true admirers of tactical mastery.

Blitzkrieg 3 features the world’s first Neural Network AI for RTS. Ruthless machine named Boris plays at the top player’s level while not using any hidden information about the enemy. General Boris regularly analyzes the gaming session and makes Neural Network-based predictions of the enemy behavior. This approach allows him to think up sophisticated counter-strategies and bring them to life. That makes Boris tough and unpredictable, so he can amaze players over and over again.

Game covers the main period of World War II: from the invasion of Poland in 1939 to the triumphant capture of Berlin in 1945. Each of three atmospheric campaigns provides a unique blend of PvE, PvP and PvAI missions. In total, game features 60+ historical missions with 200+ authentic combat units. Each unit has performance characteristics reconstructed in detail, such as fire rate, armored capture, field of vision, and others that let players feel like real generals.

In addition to classic Skirmish 1×1, 2×2, and 3×3 modes Blitzkrieg 3 features the unique asymmetric Assault mode, where one player attacks and the other defends his fortifications. 20+ historical commanders with their own specialization and favorite combat tactics combined with dynamic weather system make every PvP and/or PvAI game even more diverse.

“Blitzkrieg 3 was created with the active participation of the player community.”, – commented Pavel Naumenko, head of Blitzkrieg studio. – “We strongly believe that players’ contributions are invaluable and we will continue to develop the game according to their feedback”.

You can get more information and purchase a digital copy of the game on the official website, or via the games Steam Store Page.

Pre-orders now open for both expansions, duo-pack available for a discounted price

Paradox Interactive and Paradox Development Studio today announced that Europa Universalis IV: Third Rome, the first immersion pack for the best-selling historical grand strategy game, and Hearts of Iron IV: Death or Dishonor, a country pack for the World War II grand strategy game, will launch together on June 14th, 2017.

Both packs will be priced individually at $9.99. Fans of both of Paradox Development Studios’ global conquest simulators can purchase both packs together as part of a duo-pack for 10% off at Paradox Plaza here.

Paradox demoed the new features from Third Rome in a live stream on Tuesday. The replay of that stream can be found here.

The new features in Death or Dishonor are demoed in an ongoing stream series. Replays can be found here.

Third Rome expands the governmental, military, and diplomatic opportunities for the Russian empire. The pack includes new ranks of Russian governments that give Tsars the power to claim states, powerful streltsy mercenary units that excel in combat at the cost of the empire’s stability, and new interactions with the Orthodox Patriarchate. These changes give Russian players more ways to maintain control over their sprawling territory using a mix of military might, political touch, and religious conviction.

Death or Dishonor introduces new National Focus trees and gameplay options for the countries caught between the Nazi and Soviet war machines – Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. In addition, Death or Dishonor adds new diplomatic and puppet interactions, new music and gameplay art, and additional national interactions to change the course of history.

Both DLCs will be accompanied by free patches that bring broader updates to the base versions of Europa Universalis IV and Hearts of Iron IV.

For more information on Europa Universalis IV: Third Rome, click here.

For more information on Hearts of Iron IV: Death or Dishonor, visit click here.